Strangers of the Woods
by awesome.cookie
Summary: John wasn't a popular boy. The closest friend he had was his older sister, Jane. When summer comes one year and Jane starts working nearly daily John is left to his known devices. But perhaps it won't be as lonely as it seems, as the teenager meets people in the woods who will change his life - for better or for worse
1. Chapter 1: hobos of the forest

*John Egbert*

I live a simple life.

I live in a universe, in the Milky-Way galaxy, in a solar system, on the North-American continent, in the United States of America, in the state of Washington. That was my official address that I had learned in 4th grade. My house a little ways away from town. It's surrounded by trees that kinda give off this ominous feel sometimes. The people who live in my cabin-like house is just me, my 1-year older sister Jane, and my dad. We attend a school down the road a bit, both of us getting decent grades.

My dad works hard at an office job in town and is gone a lot. But whenever he's home, he spends all of his time with us. Dad is the cookie-cutter image of what a dad is supposed to be. Slightly annoying at times, always wearing a suit, constantly has a pipe in his mouth, and always having a good prank or joke up his sleeve. The only thing that didn't fit that image was his passion for baking. But as long as I didn't have to eat all of those cakes, it was fine by me.

Jane also enjoyed playing pranks and joking around, it was sort of a family thing. On April 1st the house became a war zone. Jane had inherited dad's flair for baked goods, and on my birthday I basically drowned in cakes that they both constantly cooked. She also likes to read mystery novels. I'm always the one stuck listening to her blabbing on about what's just happened in her latest book and who she thought the murderer was. Not that I minded that much. It was nice to see Jane so excited and happy.

I myself like to watch movies. And I don't care if people call them 'bad' and 'cheesy', they're awesome! I also play the piano, dad taught me when I was little, and on some of my more morning days I play a piece I composed myself to pass the time. Not that I'm some expert composer, just a guy that can dink around on the keys.

Yeah, life was running smoothly. But of course, it wouldn't be much of a life if nothing unexpected happened.

It was the summer of my 15th year. My sister was working a summer job, my dad was at work, and I was left alone during most of the days. The summer had started only a week ago, and I was quickly growing bored. In all the years before this, it was a great chance to hang out with jane and just play around, act like we couldn't feel the weight of the world slowly falling onto our shoulders as we grew up.

So, on the 2nd Monday of the break, I grabbed myself a water-bottle, filled it with some apple juice, made a quick sandwich and headed out to the woods to help cure some of my boredom. During my younger years, I used to play around out there all the time, hoping to find something strange or magical or really anything. Jane usually hoped to find a murdered body and to try and solve the case of their death. Our dad sometimes told us stories of ancient people who lived in the woods. Originally, we both thought he was talking about Native Americans, but when we brought it up one day he just shook his head and said that these people had been around for far longer than Native Americans.

We never found anything that wasn't an animal or litter in the woods, but it was still fun to pretend. So I wandered around through the woods, brushing my hands against the rough bark of the trees that I passed until I came to a really small clearing where my dad, sister and I had picnicked at a few times before. I layed down and watched the clouds passing by. I had summer homework I could've worked on instead of going on this little hike. But the summer had just started, I still had plenty of time to do it. Anyway, I'm a master procrastinator.

Done with my sandwich, I got up and and started to head back, water bottle open and sipping at the apple juice as I went. I hadn't made it a yard back into the trees when I stopped abruptly. Something seemed off. The hairs on back of my head started to raise. In my right peripheral, a blur of red, orange and black rushed past. My heart skipped a beat and I started running. I had the distinct feeling that I was being hunted by something that knew these woods far better than I do.

The only reason I got away was probably because whatever it was let me, maybe thinking that this was a great game or something. A few times as I ran the blur would dart in front of me and make a grab for my water bottle, but held it tight. Mostly because the fear coursing through me wouldn't allow my grip to loosen. My other hand was clenched into such a tight fist that I'm pretty sure my nails were starting to draw blood.

At last I made it to the edge of the woods became my backyard. Not slowing down, I looked back to see one of the higher tree branches shaking, something glinting in between the leaves. Looks like whatever it was didn't want to be found out just yet. Once I was inside, I slammed the door shut and went into lock down. After I was finally starting to calm down, I looked out the window. The branch had stopped shaking, but the glint was still there. It caused a shiver to run down my spine.

Jane would've probably gotten a kick out of that, probably say that it was a serial killer that was hiding in the woods. I wasn't so sure. Sitting on the dining room table was the bottle. I hadn't drunk much of it, considering that'd I'd been running at full speed and hadn't had much time to do anything but breath. For the life of me I didn't know why the thing/person would've wanted it. The bottle was normal enough, and all it had was apple juice inside. I looked back outside. The branch was shaking again and the glint gone.

As the day passed, I stayed inside and binge-watched a TV show about some guy who could bring people back to life with a touch, but killed them again with another. It was really interesting. Another show that was cancelled by some stupid decision. Jane came home in time to make dinner. A nice pasta. During dinner she talked about her day. Not really anything out the usual for her. Jane worked at a bakery and was one of their best employees. She great at decorating a baking and talked about what she had made today. She talked about her co worker that she could hardly stand and the new customer who had flirted at her. When asked about my day, I just smiled and told her that I watched TV and that there wasn't much else to say about it.

Dad came home a little while later. Together we sat around in the living room and played Monopoly. In the end, Jane won. She claimed it was because she was better than me. I'm pretty sure we all knew that she had cheated. Why did we even trust her to be the banker anymore? Afterwards dad headed to bed since he had to be to work early the next morning. Jane and I sat up until 11:00 watching late-night cartoons of our favorite TV that they didn't show during the day anymore. She headed to bed after one last episode, yawning and explaining that there was a huge order to finish tomorrow and wanted to be at least somewhat rested.

I turned off the TV and the lights, grabbing my Iphone and planning to head to bed myself when I saw my bottle. Throughout the entire evening, the short but memorable events of earlier had been turned over and over in my head. I looked out at the tree line. Yeah, why not, I had nothing better to do. Summoning courage I'm not really sure was even real, I grabbed the apple juice and a hammer from a drawer, unlocked and opened the back door, and strolled into the night.

Space was shining down from above. They were stunning, but I didn't stop to admire them. If I did, I think I would turn tail and run back to the safety of the house. The night woods had always struck me as sort of scary and off-putting. I stood at the tree line, doing my best not to shake and failing miserably.

"Uh, so whoever or whatever you are, if you're still nearby even, this is for you." I placed the apple juice bottle on the ground. "I don't really know why you want it, but I don't really need it. So… here you go." I waited for a minute. When nothing happened I just sighed and speed-walked back inside, to my bedroom, and allowed sleep to overtake me.

The next morning, after dad and Jane had left for work, I saw it sitting on the back porch. An empty water bottle. I went out back, looking around in case the person/thing was still around. The glint was in the trees again. Written into the dirt just off the edge of the porch was 2 words.

More AJ.

**(A/N) Okay, so that's chappy one! :) If you guys would like to read more, please review. It will help me to decide how frequently I should be updating! Also, I'm sorta new to the fandom and this is my first Homestuck fic, so if John or later on other characters are a bit ooc, but please bear with me and maybe give me a few helpful tips!**


	2. Chapter 2: ninja men are vauge

"~The way is clear, the path is good, I have no fear nor no one should. The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood~" I sang softly under my breath as I picked my way through the forest, an attempt to calm my nerves. In my backpack was another bottle of apple juice, the hammer and a bag of doritos. At the picnic spot I set these things out and waited. After a few fear-filled moments, I cleared my throat.

"Uh, hey, mystery thing, I got some more apple juice for you."

Something darted out from a tree, and while it was fast I could make out some features. The figure looked like a human boy, which was a relief that it wasn't some messed up monster. If the streaks of white, black, red and orange were anything to go off of, then this guy apparently had white hair, possibly black glasses (or he was a freaking demons, but whatever), an orange jacket or something around his waist, a red t-shirt and black jeans. The multicolored blur scooped up the juice and chips… and the ipod I had in my hands.

"Wha- hey, give that back!" The blur climbed up a nearby tree, hiding in the foliage. Best part of it all? I don't have a passcode. Apparently nobody thinks I'm interesting enough to steal my ipod and dink around on it, so I never really had much of a reason. "My dad'll kill me if he finds out some random hobo in the woods stole my ipod!"

I was more than a bit surprised when said object was thrown towards me from near the top of the tree. I just barely managed to catch it, thanks to a few things I learned in my little league days. I immediately turned it on to check and see what this guy had done. I was connected to some wifi called TDhotspot and had a new app called PesterChum. Sitting innocently in the corner of the app was a 2.

\- turntechDiety [TD] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 11:12 -

TD: sup

TD: this is the hobo above you

EB: uh, hi

EB: thanks for giving my ipod back, i guess

EB: why aren't you just talking to me? you're only like 15 feet away from me.

EB: also, what's your name?

TD: technically it's turntechdiety but i like dave better

TD: so dave

TD: and im trying to keep an air of mystery here since my family would totally disapprove of this

TD: talking with a normal kid

TD: not to mention the irony

EB: uh, okay. my name's john egbert

TD: i know

TD: i used to watch you all the time

EB: why?!

TD: i was bored dude

TD: stayin up late gets boring pretty fast

EB: great, what are you exactly? are you nocturnal or something?

TD: yeah, nocturnal or something but im a human

TD: bleed red blood and all that

EB: okay but have you been watching me

EB: for like

EB: my whole life?!

TD: eh most of it anyway

TD: youre not extremely interesting

TD: and neither is your sis

TD: but thanks for the aj

TD: we don't get it in derse

EB: what's derse?

EB: and your welcome

TD: derse is where i live

TD: all dark and purple

TD: gothic place

EB: okay…? want to elaborate?

"Meow." John looked up from his ipod to see a small black cat with white markings above its eyes climbing the tree Dave was in. There was some shifting of leaves, then another message from Dave.

TD: sorry dude, gotta go

TD: TS wants me to get some sleep

TD: won't be able to text til tomorrow

-turntechDiety [TD] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 11:16-

More rustling overhead, the sound becoming more and more distant as Dave went to wherever this 'Derse' place is. The meeting had been brief, nothing more than a few typed words exchanged between acquaintances. Yet it felt like something… more was developing. Not love, I was heterosexual, but something more akin to friendship was forming between them. It was something that I didn't feel very often. I wasn't exactly popular at school. In fact, I'm probably more likely to have my head shoved in a toilet and be bullied than to have a group of friends that hung onto my every word.

I glanced at my ipod. The wifi was gone, which was to be expected. I'd never heard of pesterchum before. I was interrupted from my thoughts by some more rustling as the kitten from earlier landed in front of me. The two white dots made it look like it had 4 eyes. It sniffed me a bit and I reached out and scratched it, causing it to purr loudly.

"Are you some kind of messenger cat or something?" I wondered allowed. I'm not sure if I was imagining it or not, but it looked like he nodded to me. Fastened around his neck was a strip of leather. Picking the kitty up, I looked at it to see a name written on it. "Mutini huh? Well, for a name like that you sure are cute." I pet him one last time before putting Mutini down and heading back home.

DAVE

"Ah, there you are TurntechDiety. If it was any other Dersite I would ask where you were, but I have gotten very used to you slipping off. Usually I would let you deal with the consequences you'd be faced with tomorrow night, but your brother was looking for you." My best friend was waiting for me at the entrance to Derse, arms folded across her chest. But she wasn't angry, simply amused. "Where do you run off to?"

"Places. Places is where. Thanks for the warning. Can't have my bro all over me. I'm a growing angsty teenage boy who needs his privacy." I flash-stepped to the large building in the middle of town. The building of the Heroes. It was a place I had called home for all 15 years of my life. Knowing it like the back of my hand allowed me to go faster than I did when I ran around the forest. Of course, not paying attention to your surroundings was also reckless. Before I could make it to my room a foot went out and I tripped over it in a totally uncool manner.

"Oh, sorry, didn't see you there. In fact, I haven't seen you all morning. Going out to kiss some human chick awake?" Bro was leaning against the wall, shades across his eyes and expression blank as usual. Man, he was so cool.

"Nah, just going out to pick some daisies. Maybe make them into flower crown and skip around in the sunlight with the Prospitians. Frolic around like a freaking deer. Get tan and crap." I picked myself up off the ground, making sure to be as smooth as possible. This was the delicate process of getting out of trouble.

"Dude you'd burn to a crisp in the sun. You're more pale than baby's butt. Anyway, we have a new mission in two nights. Sneaking around Prospit. Get new intel. Be the awesome Heroes we are. Regular crap." Yeah, that seemed about right. "Go get some shut eye. We can't have you giving out on us halfway through just because you fell asleep."

Who knew how long we'd be gone. I probably would need the sleep, in all honesty. But I didn't like to dream. Being a Derse dreamer, my dreams were usually filled with dark, monstrous gods wrapping unearthly tentacles around me and begging me for… something. I don't know, I don't speak blobby monster. My best friend does, but she doesn't usually talk about it. This time, however, I came to on a black and white plane, a bright blue sky above full of fluffy white clouds. Sweet.

Across the plane, laying down and looking up at the sky, was a blacked haired girl with glasses. I looked up too. They say that you can see things in the clouds of the dream world, Skaia. The past, the present, the future. My brain only half-processed that the girl had disappeared, seeing as it wasn't all that surprising. She came from Prospit. She should've woken up hours ago. Settling down, he looked skyward.

Images passed by him. A cloud in the shape of a gear. Images of the exchange that had happened between Egbert and I not too long ago. I picture of my friend, standing in front of Egbert holding something in her hands, though it was hard to tell what it was as the scene was dark, then quickly disappeared. Another cloud held an image of a teenager walked into Derse holding a bundle in his arms and looking like the world had fallen down around him long ago.

Dreams in the Skaia realm always passed in this slow, passive manner. It was a huge difference from dreams on the Outer Rings. The dark gods sort of creeped me out, so I spent most of those times trying to get as far away from them as I could. Another cloud floated by. A nerdy boy walking through the crowded halls of some building. His belongings are clutched in his arms as he tried to avoid getting them knocked out of his grasp. There were little doodles all over his belongings. That was John. Guess he was just as popular as he looked.

JOHN

-turtechDiety [TD] started pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 08:30-

TD: dude

TD: wake up

TD: i need you out here now

EB: can't I sleep in?

EB: it's summer

TD: yeah, well, i have a favor to ask

TD: and not a lot of time

TD: so get over here like someone just lit you on fire

TD: and the only way to put it out is to perform some creepy ritual right here

TD: while my bro and i dance around you in our hero pajamas

EB: … what?

TD: just get over here

-turntechDiety [TD] ceased pestering ecotBiologist [EB] at 08:32-

I groaned and rolled over. I had been aquantices with Dave for not quite a day and already he was asking something of me. Early morning meetups didn't sound strange at all. But Jane always teased me on how gullible and ice I was, and she was right. In the end I put on my robe and slippers and headed out. No way he was making me get dressed. Both dad and Jane were eating pancakes for breakfast. I glared at the Batter Witch's evil box of flour sitting on the table. Not eating those pancakes today. Jane asked where I was going. I gave them some excuse about fresh morning air. Jane seemed a bit suspicious, but dad seemed to buy, nodding and wishing me a good day. They'd both probably be gone by the time I got back.

At what was starting to seem like our usual meeting spot I could see branches shaking. I knew I was in his hotspot when a few chirps came from my ipod.

\- turntechDiety [TD] started pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 08:43 -

TD: nice robe

TD: what are those weird squid things on it

TD: some type of octopus

TD: or a cute version of the Eldrich gods

EB: they're called squiddles

EB: my sister got it for me

EB: what is it you want anyway

TD: follow me

I rolled my eyes. Not really how I wanted to spend the morning. Nonetheless I followed the rustling leaves. They twisted and curved through the woods and at times I had a hard to keeping up. I mean, I wasn't fat or anything but I wasn't exactly what somebody would call fit. Any ways, we kept like that for a while until eventually Dave stopped over some bundle or what looked like sheets.

TD: see the sheets

TD: i need you to take it north to lowas

EB: what?! why me? what is it anyway

TD: look im busy

TD: my bro and i need to pack

TD: super awesome mission stuff

TD: way more important than risking running into the golden a**holes

EB: ugh, fine, but only because i have literally nothing else i'm doing today

EB: and there's no way i could abandon this little thing

EB: she's so adorable!

EB: or is it a he

TD: i have literally no idea

TD: kay, adios amigo

TD: try not to die out there

-turntechDiety [TD] ceased pestering ectoBiology [EB]-


	3. Chapter 3: salamanders and ladies

Go north huh? That wasn't vague at all. Not gonna tell me any land markers I should be looking for? A guestimation of how far I need to go? Just go north. Yeah, thanks for that Dave. I shifted the salamander in my arms until it was in a more comfortable position. That's what was inside of the sheets. For a giant large amphibian, the little girl was absolutely adorable. There was no way I could take her home, no matter how much I wanted to. I couldn't raise a tomagotchi, much less an actual living being.

So north I went, onward on my quest to deliver the young damsel back to her species that apparently were dangerous or something. Was this a suicide mission? Probably. It didn't really surprise me that my new acquaintance might try to get rid of me. For one thing I didn't even know exactly what this guy looked like, whether it really was a guy, or even what his voice sounded like. Just went ahead and ignored everything I've ever been told about strangers.

100 points to Egbertdor. Yes. Perfect.

I walked in that direction for what felt like ages. So probably 5 or ten minutes. That was about the time when the salamander started to squirm a bit, blink its eyes open, and looked up at me, head cocked slightly to the side curiously. She had bright golden eyes that sparkled in the morning sun, adding to the cuteness.

"Hey there." I grinned down at her. She blew a spit bubble, and then seemed to smile back. I giggled, even though it had gotten all over me, and she blew another. "My name's John Egbert. I don't suppose you have a name, so i'm going to give you one. How do you feel about… hm… Casey?" Another spit bubble. "Casey it is then! Well Casey, my friend has asked me to take you to where a bunch of other salamanders apparently live. You're really adorable, but you're kinda heavy. Is there anyway I can convince you to just walk beside me?"

I set Casey on the ground and half-expected her to scamper off into the woods, but instead she _stood on her back legs. _It looked a bit strange, but she just looked up at me and blew yet another bubble.

"glub."

"Well then, let's get going." Casey had no problem keeping up with me. She'd wrapped herself in the sheets, which dragged in the dirt behind us. "I don't suppose you know where we're going, do you?"

"glub"

"Okay. Just making sure. You sure are cute, the wilderness is no place for a little thing like you. Not that you really have a choice I guess, being a wild amphibian. Are salamanders even supposed to live in Washington? I don't really know much about salamanders. When I get home I should look it up. Sorry, am I rambling?"

"glub glub glub"

"It's just that, I haven't really had anybody new to talk to for a long time. I mean, sure Dave is new and all, but I've only known him for 2 days, and only a couple minutes both times we met. You see, I'm not really what you'd call, um, popular. In fact I've seen my fair share of the insides of lockers. It doesn't help that I'm super skinny that I can fit inside without too much pushing and shoving. But I think I might be claustrophobic. Okay, I am claustrophobic. Fine, I'm really really claustrophobic. Just stop pressing me!"

"glub glub"

I sighed and we walked mostly in silence for the rest of the way. But there was the occasional *glub* and at some point I picked Casey up and carried her piggyback. Every-so-often I'd take a moment to tell her about my home life, what my dad and sister were like. Occasionally she'd pull on my hair and direct me in a different direction, and I guess she must have recognized some things.

Eventually we came to a cave in the side of the mountain. Casey patted my head, as if reassuring me that it was okay to go in. Yep, this was what I had sunk to. Needing to be reassured by a weird salamander. Steeling myself, I stepped into the darkness. I was glad I wearing my robe still as the inside of the was quite cold, though the slippers had been hell to walk in.

It eventually got to the point where I couldn't see me hand in front of my face and i was starting to think that I should turn around when I saw something glowing up ahead. As I got closer, I realized it was an honest to goodness glowing mushroom. If the ninja kid and the bipedal salamander weren't weird, surely this qualified. Or was this something normal mushrooms actually did? I wasn't a mushroom expert. The further I went the more and more there were, until they were lining the edges of both walls.

Figuring this was the place I set Casey back on the ground. She started to go off down the tunnel but turned around and ran back, putting her chubby little salamander arms around me and hugging me as tight as she could, which was admittedly not that tight. I hugged her back. Why was I sad to see her leave? It was like with Dave. I hadn't known them both for not very long, yet I felt some type of connection with them.

"You be a good girl, okay Casey?"

I pulled away eventually and the scampered off down the tunnel. I watched until she disappeared into the blackness before turning back myself. Time to find my way home. I honestly had no idea where I was.

The next morning I once again headed out. I didn't want dad and Jane to get suspicious or anything, so I made sure that they were gone this time. It helped that Dave wasn't bugging me in the early hours of the morning. In fact, he hadn't pestered me at all since he asked me to take the salamander home. Probably was too busy with his supposed 'mission' that was probably made up so that he didn't have to deal with Casey. Jokes on him, since Casey had been great company.

I was more than a bit surprised to see said salamander at the normal meeting spot.

Even more than that, I was surprised to find her sitting on a human girl's lap.

The girl was wearing a long, dark purple dress with a cut in the skirt that pooled at her feet. One of her legs peeked through the gap, revealing simple black shoes. The top half of the dress had vertical black stripes and was edged on the top and bottom with gold. Black sleeves, only about three fingers thick, looped over her shoulders. A thin black veil covered part of her head, little purple ornaments hanging off it. The girl's hair was bleach-blonde and her skin was deathly pale.

But her most striking feature had to be bright violet eyes that I could see looking at me from behind veil. Lips covered in what looked like black lipstick curled into a small smile.

Casey jumped off of the strangers lap and walked over to me, gesturing that she wanted to be picked up. I did so and she pulled at a scarf around her neck, showing it off. Did this new girl give it to her? Probably.

"I see Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer has taken a liking to you." The girl spoke, though didn't get up. She also hasn't blinked yet.

"You mean Casey? Yeah, I helped her get home yesterday. It looks like she got lost again."

"He was talking about seeing her father again. I suppose that was you."

"I guess. Why are you here? I haven't ever met anybody else in these woods besides Casey and Dave." She cocked her head to the side, the smile unchanging.

"I saw TurntechDiety coming here in a dream and I was intrigued. And instead of finding a secret tunnel or some valuable kept hidden I find a salamander and a boy. I can assume who this Dave is, but I'm afraid that I have never seen you before, whether I was awake, asleep, or in between."

"Well, I'm John Egbert. Nice to meet you?" I stuck my hand out. I wasn't really sure if that was a good response to the situation. Nonetheless, she stuck out a pale hand and placed it in mine.

"TentacleShamen, Seer of Light, Hero of Derse. Perhaps that is too long though. If you like, you may simply call me… Rose. Yes, I like that name." Now she got up, using my hand to help pull herself to her feet and then proceeded to walk around me several times. I just stood still as Casey blew another spit bubble, feeling really creeped out by the Rose girl. "Hm, you're an interesting one. It's really quite surprising how hard it is for me to read you."

"Thanks, I guess." She stopped in front of me.

"John Egbert, you are one to be watched. And trust me when I say that I will be watching. I can see it, woven into your soul, there's something special about you. The details of your life and hard to read, like trying to see what the wind looks like." Rose drew in close, our noses almost touching. I could feel my face turning a bright shade of red as I stumbled away, stuttering out something along the lines of 'I'm only 15'. The small smile never so much as wavered the entire time. "Even when you are surprised, anything deeper than emotions are hard to read. Very impressive. Perhaps our paths will cross again in the future."

She took Casey from me, and Casey didn't seem to bothered by it, simply waving goodbye to me.

"Viceroy has agreed to be my apprentice. I do hope you, as his father, don't mind." I shook my head. "Then I must bid thee farewell, John Egbert. I'm glad that I have something to keep me occupied. Life has become so dull lately."

And just like that, she walked into the woods. I just watched her go, thinking that so far it looked like my entire summer was doomed to be collage of meeting random people in the woods for only a few minutes. Woods which, as stated on several previous occasions, have seemed to be void of human life for, like, most of my life. And now salamanders and weird people who seem to know a disturbing amount of information on me are showing up.

Yep, just a normal summer.

Back at my house, as I entered back into the wifi, my pesterchum dinged a few times signaling that Dave had apparently been trying to contact me while I was out.

\- timetechDiety [TD] started pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 10:12-

TD: dude

TD: john

TD: yo

TD: egdork you there

TD: john

TD: john

TD: broski

TD: this is the worst mission in the history of missions

EB: what are you doing

TD: spying in enemy territory

TD: trying to find out if they're plotting anything

EB: and you're doing it during the day because…?

TD: because the people in charge are idiots

EB: is this the important thing you were talking about yesterday

EB: why did you go if it's so boring?

TD: you think i had a choice?

TD: dude, i am just supposed to follow orders

TD: protect my people and all that crap

TD: be one of their Heroes

EB: you're not making any sense

EB: are ever going to explain anything ever

EB: or just leave me in the dark for the rest of my life

TD: even though it is more fun to watch you try and figure out my cryptic words

TD: i will indulge you and feed your curiosity like it is my new pet goldfish

TD: basically i live with these guys called carapacians

TD: more specifically they are dersites

TD: they are always somewhere between war and cold war with the prospitian carapacians

TD: i am some special guy that fights for derse

EB: well that seems like it sucks

EB: wait if you were going into prospit territory

EB: and you said casey lives there

EB: why didn't you take her?

TD: the lizard?

EB: she's a salamander

TD: whatever

TD: for one thing it confirmed something about you

TD: and for another it is not like i can just slip past my group

EB: but you're a sneaky ninja guy that jumps around the forest spying on innocent boys

TD: you obviously have not met my bro

TD: that guy can kick my but using nothing but a puppet and a twig

TD: leave me traumatized by the horrors of the plush rumps he keeps in his room

TD: yeah ever since i was little everything has been ironic or a puppet

TD: crap, bro is coming over

TD: we can talk more later

EB: hey, wait, i still have a some questions!

-turtechDiety [TD] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 10:12-

EB: and i met this one girl in the woods today

EB: ugh, whatever

(A/N: just wanted to take a minute and say a quick thanks to everybody who has read this so far. You all mean a lot to me :)


	4. Chapter 4: vague Derse pov

ROSE

The minute I stepped back into Derse people ran over to me, all asking questions at once.

"Where have you been?"

"Is that a lizard?"

"We were worried sick!"

"How could you run off like that?"

"Isn't that a Prospitian salamander?"

"Did you go to Prospit young lady?!"

This was exactly what I expected to happen. It was very rare for me to leave Derse, much less without telling anybody and with daytime coming so quickly. Daytime meant that meetings with the Prospitians were more likely to happen. Not to mention that I was the only other young Hero they currently had what with TurntechDiety on a mission. I tried to answer but they just bulldozed right over my words with more questions.

Suddenly, something that felt like a cold hand closed around me. Darkness encircled me and a few or the Dersites made some disgruntled noises, but made no act to actually grab me and pull me out of the dark void that had swallowed me. Horrorterrors screamed as I passed by but I brushed off their words easily. It wasn't like we had enough time to have actual conversations.

I was soon pulled back into the world of the living and awake in a room of differentiating shades of pink. A woman sat in front of me, reclined in a chair and sipping on a martini glass. She was wearing a short, sleeveless purple dress, long black gloves and tall black boots. She had bleach-blonde hair that had a spiral. Cotton-candy pink eyes looked me over. Lips tugged into a smirk/smile. Just over the top of her dress pink markings peaked out. Dark spaces of simply _nothingness _dispersed around us.

"Hello mother." I said, looking her straight in the eyes. Waiting for her to play her move.

"Hi dalrnig. Darling." She slurred her words a bit, a sign that she had been drinking again. Well, drinking more than usual. My mother was always drinking, but she could usually keep the slurring under control. "You're welcome for saving you from the papzarii. papriziz. paparazzi."

"I could've handled it myself." I responded confidently, back held high. My mom laughed at that.

"Yeah, you were halndig it great out there. Where were you anyway? An' why do you have a lizzrad? Handling. Lizard."

"I was out for a walk. I didn't know I wasn't allowed to leave Derse. Dave leaves all the time and nobody questions him. I wasn't even gone for that long."

"Oh honey you know I don't care. But to be fair Dave even couldn't stay in his crib when he was a baby. You know the Dersite's just think you're a flareig little rose. Fragile." She downed the contents of her glass and then refilled it.

"I don't need to be coddled. I am more than capable of handling myself."

"I say good for you for going out. But the lizards a bit weird."

"Viceroy is a salamander. Now if you need me, I'm going to be teaching him about the gods of the Outer Rings." With back held high, I spun around and left the room, going through the corridors until I came to the Light room, my room. Ugh, my mother was always trying to smother me. Couldn't I just have a few seconds without her? And I most definitely didn't need her help. I was old enough to take care of myself.

Needing to blow off some steam to someone, I pulled open one of my drawers and took out an iphone. The phone itself, along with a few others, had been stolen from a store not too long ago by TurntechDiety's older brother when he was bored. He had then proceeded to suit them all up to be solar-powered. How they were able to get internet, I don't know, but it probably wasn't by legal means. He had given one to both TD and I telling us to charge them during the day, don't use them outside of our rooms, don't try to call random people, and under no circumstances tell the Dersites about them.

The Dersites just had this thing about doing things traditionally, the way they were always done. If TD's bro really wanted to integrate modern tech into the society, though, the Dersites probably would've rolled with it. In fact some of them might even take to it very well. But I always got the feel that he enjoyed having a piece of him hidden from the rest, a secret to help him get through. At any rate he had made these when his hands had just been itching to work on some things, during a lull in missions, and now I had a means to contact my fellow Hero from across distances with little interruption.

\- tentacleShaman [TS] started pestering turntechDiety [TD] at 11:01 -

TS: Please tell me that you're not busy right now

TS: I need somebody to talk to and frankly you're the only person available right now

TD: hey

TD: yeah i am doing fine

TD: no no dont worry we havent been spotted

TD: i am a bit hungry though and theres frogs everywhere

TD: on a scale of one to ten how desperate do you think i would need to be to eat frogs

TS: I'm glad that you're okay but Derse is driving me crazy and you know that you're the only person I can talk to about this type of stuff

TD: all we are doing right now is watching them mill around and crap

TD: one dropped a stick woop de doo

TD: how thrilling

TD: go ahead and spill

TS: It's just that nobody seems to trust me

TS: I am 15 years old I can take care of myself and take down anything that could possibly pose a threat to me in the woods

TS: I've been trained since I was young by the best fighters Derse has to offer

TS: I have even been able to hold conversations with the Dark Gods of the Outer Ring, which is not a thing for the weak of mind or stomach

TS: But if I leave for longer than 30 minutes by the time I come back everybody is distressed and planning to go to war with Prospit in case they caught me or something.

TD: you and i both know they are all dramatic

TD: you are 'the seer' so thats supposed to make you special and crap

TD: just wait out another year

TD: after the tier ceremony there is no way they can try and control

TD: and if they do you can show them who is boss

TS: I guess you are right

TS: By the way Turntech, I met John today

TS: Or maybe I should call you Dave

TD: i was bored okay

TS: I think it suits you. I told him to call me Rose

TS: Which seems strange now since my mom compared me to a fragile rose today

TD: just show them that this rose has a ton of thorns

TS: He was very nice and I got a new apprentice out of it

TS: It's a Prospit salamander

TS: I have named him Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer

TD: nobody should let you name kids ever

TD: kay we are moving position now

TD: gonna need to log off

TD: now we stare at the heroes base

TD: can you read how thrilled i am

TD: i am so thrilled its a surprise that im not exclaiming it to the world

TD: bring all the prospitians down on us

TD: then we can take notes on how they react to finding spies

TD: might really make a leapt in our notes

TS: Do try to contain all of that. I know it must be hard but our people are depending on you oh-so-brave Knight

\- tentacleShamen [TS] ceased pestering turntechDiety [TD] at 11:13 -

I really wanted to keep pestering TD, but I understood he was busy. If their group got caught, while he and his brother would probably be okay the Dersites with them would probably be killed. Shutting my iphone off, I looked over at Viceroy. She had wrapped herself in a black cloak I had lying around. It had belonged to my last apprentice I had taken on, a Derse turtle, but she had proven not to be suited for it. A shame, she had been so promising.

I had never actually seen a real live Prospit salamander before, or even heard much about them. I suppose that was what one was to expect when they've lived in Derse their entire lives. At any rate, this just gave me a great excuse to go to the library. Making sure that the cloak surrounded him well enough that anybody passing by wouldn't realize what he was.

By now at least the crowd outside had shrunk. Any Dersites still surrounded me, some even stating that if I ever 'ran off' again that they would bring the queen in on this. When they weren't looking I rolled my eyes. We all knew that when in came between a Hero and royalty, our power goverment-wise was basically on par with theirs. I walked with my back straight and passed right through what had remained of the crowd until I arrived at the library.

The librarian gave me a smile and a nod, she was always nice and quiet. Viceroy stuck close to me the entire time, looking at the Dersites suspiciously. Or I think that look on his face was suspicion. It was really only a minor shift in his expression, from happy to slightly less happy. Luckily there were even less Dersites in the library than there were outside, as most of them were heading to bed for the night.

I grabbed a few large and musty tomes from the shelves, such as 'A Guide to Consorts', 'Flora and Fauna of Prospit', 'Salamanders of the Golden Lands' and 'Turtles, Crocodiles and Other Blessed Creatures'. Viceroy grabbed a book too as we passed a shelf, 'The Gods of the Outer Ring'. I could already tell she was going to be a great student. While she plopped down on a chair and read that, I started to skim through the book.

'A Guide to Consorts' turned out not to be very helpful. It was too vague to be of much use. The book mostly talked about what the different types of consorts are, what of their secrets we have found out, and how they are to play a part in Days of Reckoning. Nothing that any Prospitian or Dersite hadn't heard a million times over.

I ha+ve no idea why the next book was called 'Flora and Fauna of Prospit' when it was basically 90% about the Flora and 10% about the fauna. It did mention that salamander usually eat bugs but speculated that it was possible that a Prospitian salamander might be able to digest different foods as well. I wrote that down on a piece of paper for later.

On another day, if I wasn't looking for something in particular, 'Turtles, Crocodiles and Other Blessed Creatures' would have been a fascinating read. This one delved into the connections between the creatures, their languages, possibilities of Heroes that they would feel more attached to or connected with.

'Salamanders of the Golden Lands' was exactly what I was looking for, seeing as it was apparently written by a Prospitian and presumably stolen from their library during an attack year (there's been too many to know which). Like the first book, it delved into how they were supposed to come into play in the End Times, but it also talked about what their culture seemed to be. According to this very extensive study they were all known to have yellow skin that should be kept at least moist or risk death (very important). Their language, to those who cannot hear it, sounds like 'glubs' with seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. Prospitian salamanders are known for blowing bubbles of spit. They seem to do this especially when exited.

I closed the tome, deciding to take it back to my room with me. This should be very useful. Viceroy noticed me getting up and followed suit, small arms wrapped around his book. He truly seemed intelligent, especially as far as young consorts go. A very promising student. But in the mean time, the sun was getting higher and higher in the sky and after such an eventful day, a little sleep never hurt anyone (too much). Who knows, perhaps I would learn things in my dreams today.

DAVE

Ugh.

If one more iguana tried to steal my jacket I was going to bring out my sword. No more mister nice Strider. Bam, twenty dead iguanas, the rest of ya better look out 'cause here comes the evil Dersite Hero, come to steal your children away and kill all the consorts that dare step in his way. Not that your scouting party really needed any more bloodshed on your hands. I mean, we hadn't killed anybody yet, but it would only be a matter of time until one of the Dersites snapped and killed those annoying little pests at my feet.

By which I mean frogs.

It was a well known fact that all Dersites detested frogs. I'm sure that there was some type of mythology behind it and that TentacleShamen had tried to explain it a time or two but I wasn't really listening. I just knew that, excluding Bro and me, the rest of our group was itching for their weapons as a frog ribbited and hopped past us. But the Prospitians highly respected frogs and if we wanted to get out of here unnoticed than the less dead frogs/consorts we leave behind, the better.

We were deeper into Prospit than I had ever been taken before, just outside of their Building of Heroes. God, why did it have to be so bright? Why did everything in this place have to be all golds, yellows and whites. Even with my sunglasses on it was a bit overwhelming. Probably didn't help that I had grown up with purple/black black buildings and awake at night. The leader of our group was technically Bro, but I could see that he was letting one of the Dersites who had gone on missions similar to this one numerous times take the reins.

I had seen Analysis Reconnoiter around very often. He was usually the one to tell Bro that I had run off during my duties again. He was basically head of the police. He gestured for Bro and I to watch the Building of Heroes while he and the other two Dersites on my team went closer to the castle. Honestly I didn't want to keep sitting around, especially when I could see something blue and vaguely iguana shaped in the corner of my eye.

It was around then that somebody left the Building.

In the times that we had come here for reconnaissance before nobody had ever left the building. All I knew about the Heroes of Prospit was that there was only, like, one or two and they had been trying to get their hands on some of us. Obviously Derse was like 'no-way josé' and then there was another war or something. Bro nudged me and nodded to her, which really wasn't all that necessary since I was looking anyway.

She had long black hair and large round glasses over bright green eyes. Her buckteeth sort of reminded me of John, which was sort of weird. She was wearing a long sleeveless black dress fringed with electric green. It was hard to see from this distance, but it looked like the dress was supposed to look like the night sky. The girl looked over at a short Prospitian and smiled. Then she started to walk our way.

I tensed at first while Bro remained as cool as a cucumber. She steered off course and went into a building, coming out holding a couple frogs in her arms. Now that she was closer I could see the tips of some green marking peeking up over the top of her dress. They looked a bit sloppy though. She then proceeded to walked back into the Building of Heroes.

"That was HylaGnostic." It was only years of practiced that caused me not to jump at the sudden whisper in my ear. Apparently AR and the other two were back. "Once you have grown older you'll probably see a lot more of her during meetings. She is the only young Prospit Hero that they have."

I nodded, not really knowing what to know what else to do.

"C'mon, we found a secret entrance into the castle. We're going in." Finally, something to do. As glad as I was to be moving, I let the others head off ahead of me a little bit so as to check my iphone. No messages. Hm. Hopefully I would be able check up on the others later.

For now, I put my iphone back in my pocket and flashed set towards the others.

* * *

A girl looks out her window as she sets some frogs down with the others in her room. She could've sworn she'd seen something move in the trees. Oh well, it was probably just an iguana or salamander tripping over some froggies. She pays it no mind.

* * *

**AN: Hey, just wanted to say a special thank you those who have reviewed: REader7289, L3MONSNOUT413, me, and random reader. Also, thank you random reader for pointing out the flaw with Jade's name, I fixed it. :)**


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